Devastating Budget Cuts

Squadrons across the Air Force will be grounded. Moves will be put on hold, throwing families into turmoil.

New recruits won’t be able to start basic training. Bonuses for critical personnel could be deferred.

And that’s just the beginning.

More than halfway through fiscal 2017, Congress still hasn’t gotten its act together enough to pass a budget that funds the Air Force and other government agencies.

If that doesn’t change soon, it’s going to start screwing things up for tens of thousands of airmen across the country.

The Air Force, along with the rest of the government, has been operating all year under a continuing resolution that — with a few small exceptions — keeps funding the service at fiscal 2016 levels.

But to meet its global national security commitments, the Air Force has had to fly at higher levels than last year, said Col. Patrick Ryder, an Air Force spokesman. The service took the risk of assuming a 2017 budget would be passed, “which is a reasonable expectation,” he said.

Continuing resolutions, or CRs, are intended to be short-term budgetary measures to keep the lights on while lawmakers work out the last details of the budget.

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